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DWE Home > Home > Water Management > Water access and trade > Basic Rights to Water

Water access and trade

Basic Rights to Water

Three basic rights to access water are available to rural landholders' in NSW. Licences are not required for:

• domestic and stock rights;
• native title rights; and
• harvestable rights.

These are explained in:

What are rural landholders' basic rights to water? (PDF 27KB)

Water for my rural property - do I require a licence? (PDF 58KB)

Domestic and stock rights

Landholders over an aquifer or with river or lake frontage can access water for domestic (household) purposes or to water stock.

Native Title rights

Anyone with native title to water as determined under the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 can access water for a number of personal, domestic and non-commercial purposes.

Harvestable rights (Farm dams)

Harvestable right water is intended for essential stock and household use but can be used for any purpose. Harvestable right water allows for landholders in most rural areas to collect a proportion of the runoff on their property and store it in one or more farm dams up to a certain size.

Farm Dams